Synopsis

Develop a strategic mindset – and capture the opportunities of tomorrow!
The purpose of this seminar is to help managers understand the need to balance their roles – between operational management and strategic thinking. As organizations have flattened and roles have changed, strategic thinking is no longer the responsibility only of senior management. All managers down the line have a responsibility to think strategically about their roles within the context of their organization’s business.

The intent of this seminar is not to train participants to be strategic planners for their organizations. Rather, the focus is on helping them to develop a strategic mindset for their particular work units so that they can add value to their organizations from within their work units as well as in their interactions with other work units.

Developing a strategic mindset will also help prepare participants for higher levels of responsibility in their
organizations over time.

For Whom

Managers with five years or less of management experience who have been focused on operational management and now want to take a more strategic view of their roles and responsibilities.

Special Benefits

• Understand the difference between operational management and strategic thinking
• Understand what is strategy and how strategic thinking can add value to your organization
• Learn a structured, four-step approach to strategic thinking
• Learn how to apply this approach to different types of organizations, commercial and non-commercial, and to different levels within an organization - corporate level, business unit level, functional level
• Understand where mission and vision fits into strategic thinking
• Understand the challenges of strategy execution and the key requirements for successful strategy execution

Seminar Content

What is Strategic Thinking? Strategy?

• Strategic thinking – formulating strategies that contribute to the success of the organization
• But what is strategy?
• Exploring the concept of strategy in different contexts – military context, sports and games, commercial businesses, public sector and non-profit organizations.
• Understanding the situations where strategy is required as opposed to just plans or tactics.
• Defining strategy as deliberate choices or decisions to achieve success for the organization within the context of such situations.
• But decisions on what? What are the key questions to answer in formulating strategy?

Formulating the Strategic Questions to Answer

• Understanding that the strategic questions to answer are different for different types of organizations (commercial, public sector, non-profit) and for different levels within an organization (corporate, business unit and functional levels)
• Applying a three-step method to identifying the relevant questions to answer in formulating strategy for an organization and for a unit within that organization
• Applying the method to commercial and non-commercial organizations
• Once the strategic questions to answer have been identified, fourth step is to find the best answers to these questions – how to do this?

Answering the Strategic Questions

• The Issues Analysis technique as a structured approach to answering the strategic questions identified
• Five key steps in the Issues Analysis technique
• Applying the Issues Analysis technique to answering strategic questions for commercial and noncommercial organizations

Some Strategic Analysis Tools to Help Answer the Questions

• External analysis - customer analysis, competitor analysis, industry structure analysis
• Internal analysis – skills and assets, core competence analysis

Mission and Vision

• What are they? Where do they fit in? What is their value?
• Key elements of a good mission statement and a good vision statement
• Differences between a mission and a vision statement
• Framework for creating a mission statement

Strategic Thinking at the Functional Level

• Understanding the role (mission) of the functional unit in support of the overall strategy of the organization
• Applying the same four-step process for formulating strategy at the functional level as at the corporate or business unit levels

Strategy Execution

• Understanding the challenge of strategy execution
• Understanding the key requirements for successful strategy execution
• Assessing your organization on these key requirements